Ihr or Du

[Ryde.r]

If you were using the word heißen, would it be "du heißt" or "ihr heißt"?

[WoogaGirl]

"Du" and "Ihr" both mean "You", but "Ihr" is plural. I believe the two have the same conjugation though, so it all depends on what you want to say; "You are called--" or "You are [all] called--". Hope this helps!

[Ryde.r]

Ok, so if you said "ihr heißt" that wouldn't work if "ihr" is plural, because then it would have to be "ihr heißen" correct? I'm confused, because I thought ihr was just another way of saying a singular "du".

[MissDriss4ever]

ich heiße

du heißt

er, sie es heißt

wir heißen

ihr heißt

sie heißen

[Hannibal-Barkas]

Ich heiße, du heißt, er/sie/es heißt (singular)

wir heißen, ihr heißt, sie heißen (plural)

if you want to say "du" to a couple of people you use the 'ihr'

[WoogaGirl]

Actually, it would be "Ihr Heißt", since they have the same conjugation, but otherwise, you are correct, Ryder_Banks.

[AdamKean]

Hi WoogaGirl, I just want to add something on to what you said, in case anyone might take it out of context.

With the verb „heißen“ the „du“ and „ihr“ conjugations in the present indicative are identical because of two reasons.

1. „heißen“ is a regular verb in the present tense; &

2. The stem ends with „ß“.

Most or all verbs that are irregular in the present tense undergo a stem vowel change in the „du“ and „er/sie/es“ conjugations whilst the „ihr“ conjugation does not.

The verb ending for „du“ is typically „-st“ and for „ihr“ typically „-t“; which means that when a verb's stem ends with an „s“ („ß“ is essentially a double-s, but I won't go into detail here) that the „du“ and „ihr“ conjugations will be identical (given the stem hasn't undergone a vowel change).

N.B. The case for point no.2 also applies for „x“ and „z“. There may be some others, but I can't think of any now.

So please do not think that all verbs will be identical for „du“ and „ihr“ conjugations! That is only the case when both points mentioned above are true.